Shooting thru grass?

[JDM57]

Not sure this is the right forum but have a question about a shot where the only option was shooting thru about 20' of 4' tall dried yellow grass. Elk was broadside at 150 yds but the lead cow had me pegged and if I stood I was pretty sure she would have busted taking the bull with her. I could see thru the grass enough to get a blurry lock behind the bulls shoulder. I took the shot and it totally missed. I'm shooting a 270wsm. Does the grass effect the bullet that much? Don't see how I could have missed at such close range with a solid rest on the bipod.

 

[TreeWalking]

I have shot through thin grass for a few feet in front of my barrel as was in a prone position for a steady platform and hit a Coues buck at over 400 yards. 7mm-08. I suspect your bullet was hitting a lot of grass and not only slowed the bullet but altered the path.

 

[Michael54]

Im not an expert but i have totally missed so called chip shots due to tiny branches and sage brush before. So i would say its totally possible. It doesn't seem like it takes much to alter the course of a fast bullet. The downside is misses like those are on instant replay in your head for a long time. Then spending hours and even days making sure that you did in fact miss.

 

[keepriding]

Any material that interferes with a spinning object will deflect it. Paper, wood, grass, rain, etc. The amount of deflection depends on many things, but yes, it happens.

 

[howl]

Good thing you totally missed. That coulda been bad.

You can get away with something very close to the target because there's little time to veer off before impact. I don't even try it with a shotgun unless the obstruction is just inches from the target.

Very fast soft bullets will come apart very quickly even hitting something that seems unsubstantial. Learned that back when my only rifle was a 300 WM, hunting in thick woods. Inexplicable misses were explained by finding the unseen twig. Another lesson was the need for quality glass even at short range and low magnification.

 

[JustJustin]

Not saying this was the case, but "I was shooting through brush, or grass, or corn and that probably deflected my bullet " seems to be a good excuse for misses on marginal shots. I've shot a whitetail with a .243 through a 3-4" poplar, but the tree was within 10 yards of the deer. When there are obstructions between the scope and target, it's easy to be aiming at a different place than you think you are.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[OXN939]

Not sure this is the right forum but have a question about a shot where the only option was shooting thru about 20' of 4' tall dried yellow grass. Elk was broadside at 150 yds but the lead cow had me pegged and if I stood I was pretty sure she would have busted taking the bull with her. I could see thru the grass enough to get a blurry lock behind the bulls shoulder. I took the shot and it totally missed. I'm shooting a 270wsm. Does the grass effect the bullet that much? Don't see how I could have missed at such close range with a solid rest on the bipod.

As stated above, the closer to the muzzle a projectile encounters resistance, the more it will change from its intended course. Just as importantly, the faster and smaller a projectile is, the more susceptible it is to this phenomenon. Think of it as a spectrum- .22-250 on one end, being easily thrown off course, and 12 gauge slugs on the other. .270 WSM is pretty far towards the left side of that example.

 

[TREE ‘EM]

If you know enough to ask a question you already know the answer